About the Author

Aaron Wirtz is the Media & Marketing Manager for Subaru of Wichita (formerly Suzuki of Wichita) and Super Car Guys, where his innovative social media strategies have cultivated an active community both locally and nationwide. As a result of his explosive success as the television and radio personality for the Super Car Guys brand, he now offers his spokesperson services and integrated marketing solutions to other dealers through http://theunforgettablepitchman.com.

Please enjoy this little ditty I wrote (to the tune of “Meomory” from the musical Cats) and performed as part of Gridiron at Wichita’s Orpheum Theatre in April. Gridiron is a longstanding tradition in which journalists get together to make fun of the news of the last year, and it’s been a lot of fun to perform with the cast for three years now.

The writing is on the wall for the digital marketing industry as we know it. The true scale of the rampant and systemic fraud in the digital ad space is coming to light . Apple continues to annihilate online annoyances with their iOS ad blocker. With the introduction of Red, YouTube’s ad-free subscription service, even pre-roll best practices will soon be a thing of the past.

A curious byproduct of the data age is that, despite our access to technology that lets us segment, dissect, and analyze like never before, we tend to talk about marketing in sweepingly broad terms, often limiting our discussions to the platforms themselves.

You’ve heard this conversation, I’m sure—“What’s your Facebook spend? Are you doing any print?” And so on. The sheer number of different platforms is partially to blame, but there’s also a false equivalence at work here that could be costing your dealership a legion of opportunity.

False equivalence #1: All advertising on a given platform is equally effective, therefore the platform itself should be the main consideration when making advertising decisions.

Okay, we get it. 2015 is the year of Customer Experience. But what is the first tangible step that a dealership can take toward not just better customer experience, but the sort of award winning, mind blowing, shareworthy, life changing customer experience that will convert your prospects into loyalists?

Subaru of Wichita has been in the news a lot lately, and each encounter has reinforced the importance of our state of media readiness as a dealership. So, now that we have a moment to breathe, I’d like to reflect on what I’ve learned.

But first, let’s take a step out of the dealership for a moment and talk about the best example of a “Media Ready” organization I can think of–The Kansas Humane Society. My visit to KHS last year made a lasting impression on me. Everyone I encountered at KHS was ready to speak on camera without hesitation, which really made walking around the campus with a camera and tripod fun. Adrian, the gentleman that spoke on camera was very practiced, and only required one take—Practice really does make perfect. The KHS goes on the 10 o’clock news every week to raise awareness about their adoption efforts. Also, they are a wonder to behold on social media, and much of their job is done for them. I mean, really—they get to post pictures of cute dogs, cats, and rodents—and in this case, it actually counts as relevant content. Lucky ducks! Also notice the lovely Sue K—wasn’t she great? She volunteered to be on camera—or rather, she told me the dog wanted to be on camera so she would speak for him. Clearly, the staff at KHS knows that media exposure helps the animals get adopted, so they all pitch in.

When astronauts look down on our beautiful, fragile planet, they often experience the “Overview Effect,” in which previously held notions of human differences melt away and a feeling of oneness prevails. At DSES, speaker Cam Chell brought up the concept, and I’ve been thinking about it ever since.

On an admittedly less cosmic level, your dealership social media profiles provide a sort of overview effect for your customers, whether you intend for it to or not. The pictures, videos, links and text you post works together to create those concepts that are difficult to quantify, like aesthetic and tone.

A dealership’s social media profile is not an art museum, but hopefully should convincingly answer the question of “do I want to do business here?” when someone consumes years of your history with a few swipes of a finger. [Read more…]

Dylan Swift, Yelp’s Director of National Marketing, spoke this morning at the Driving Sales Executive Summit to a predictably tepid audience. The presentation included a lot of the same old statistics we’ve seen about the rise of mobile trends, and then abruptly ended.

Charlie Vogelheim, looking dashing in his velvet tuxedo jacket, asked a few questions and then invited the audience to submit questions on pieces of paper for Mr. Swift to answer. My question was the last one read, but due to time constraints, Charlie had to paraphrase, and Mr. Swift didn’t address any of the points satisfactorily. So, I’ll try here on DealerRefresh.

In response to Jordan Hyatt’s Presentation at Digital Summit at Mountain View

At the Digital Summit at Mountain View, Jordan Hyatt, Google’s Senior Product and Solutions Specialist of Automotive, gave a presentation called “The Power of YouTube: Video for Dealers,” in which he discussed the concerns of Generation C: the YouTube Generation.

Mr. Hyatt called attention to the fact that our living rooms are fragmenting. A family’s main TV might still be on in the evening, while everyone seated before it divides their attention between it and their own personal devices. This example sums up the crossroads our society finds itself at, with the flagging consumption of passive media and the rising consumption of user-generated active media all mixed up into one flashy mess of distraction.

For business-generated content, this democratization of reach potential creates new opportunities as well as a different set of obstacles to audience acceptance. Four key ideas, Mr. Hyatt went on, should be kept in mind when creating content for Generation C:

Authenticity is everything.

Sharing is the social currency.

People want to watch moments that matter.

Talent is valued over fame.

Arguably, the last three items on the list could be rolled up into the first — Authenticity. People won’t share your content unless it’s real. Moments don’t matter unless they’re real. Celebrity can be artificially manufactured, but talent cannot. Google, through its tireless commitment to improving user experience, has authenticity to spare, but how can a dealership go about developing authenticity through their internet video content?

About a month ago, my friend Alec reached out to me in a private Facebook message. “I feel like a clot for asking,” he began, “but I figured I would anyway. If you ever hear of any openings at your job…please let me know.” Reading this made me nervous.

As it turned out, I had heard of something. That very afternoon, I had written a help wanted ad for an online inventory manager, someone who photographs the cars in stock and writes descriptions for them. I liked this guy and knew he was intelligent, but could I really recommend him as an employee? These situations can be so awkward. What if he got hired and didn’t work out? Would I look bad? What if he didn’t get hired?

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Editors

Jeff Kershner

I’m the founder of DealerRefresh. I got my start in the dealer business when I was 18. From there I've worked throughout several departments within fixed to variable ops. Whether it’s managing the desk, perfecting sales process or studying online marketing and media trends, I absolutely love this business and the challenges it brings. On top of keeping up with DealerRefresh, I consult with dealerships and key industry businesses. My passion has been and continues to be helping dealers leverage new media to sell and improve customer service.

Alex Snyder

2019 marks Alex's 30th year in the car business. In that time he has had a front-row seat for the rise of the Internet and has been working to bring the online and offline dealership experience closer. Whether you knew him from his life at Checkered Flag or his years with Dealer.com/DealerTrack/Cox Alex has remained an opinionated DealerRefresh contributor who enjoys nothing more than to poke at the unsaid truths in our industry. He also helped found FRIKINtech.